Flyers fall short in bid to hit .500 in ugly loss to Panthers

By ROB PARENT

Thursday, February 21, 2013

PHILADELPHIA -- Since a cumbersome schedule often creates opportunity for second-day letdowns, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette wasn't going to wait for his usual middle-of-the-first-period bell to conduct his nightly team meeting.

Instead, one night after a gritty and emotional victory in Pittsburgh, Laviolette brought his team together for a not-so typical heart to heart before Thursday night's game against the Florida Panthers that carried a certain numerical importance.

Win today, he told his quiet group of Flyers, and you might not walk together forever, but you will at least be .500!

Or not.

"It is what it is, the schedule," Laviolette said, after his pep talk couldn't do anything to prevent the Flyers from being pasted, 5-2, by the Panthers. "You want to prepare and put yourselves in position to win. It was an important game ... but we weren't as crisp as we were (Wednesday)."

Little wonder. For it was apparent to almost everyone that the wrenching, thrilling 6-5 victory over the Penguins had been achieved only by the Flyers (8-10-1) giving everything they had.

Except that they had to play one more game the very next night, wrapping up an NHL-high 19-game stretch that included five back-to-back sets and 12 road games.

Considering they'd gotten off to such a poor start, finishing up that marathon with an even record in the standings might have been something to build on. But building any kind of game plan after that game in Pittsburgh was a tall challenge to say the least.

Of course, it also sounded like an excuse to talk about that after laying this tin egg against the Panthers.

"That's what we talked about; last night on the plane, this morning, today ... we just wanted to make sure the energy got back to where we wanted it to be," Laviolette said. "Again, it would be an excuse if we sit here and say, 'Tough schedule, tough game last night.'"

Instead, the tougher game would come at home.

Ilya Bryzgalov, perhaps a bit of a surprise starter since he'd started 16 of 18 games, and had gone the distance in the Penguins game, was yanked after giving up four goals on 15 shots. One of those, exhibiting Bryzgalov's greatest weakness, came on a penalty shot.

As bad as Bryzgalov so often looks in shootouts, he was made to look twice as terrible by rookie Jonathan Huberdeau, who stutter-stepped, moonwalked and coaxed Bryzgalov into a spastic break dance routine, then flipped the puck over him to bring on the boos.

It was beautifully ugly, really.

While Huberdeau dominated the evening with two goals and two assists, he was ably helped by Peter Mueller, with two goals. But aside from that, Bryzgalov's problems are indicative of his heavy workload, and how badly his teammates were playing against a Panthers team (5-7-4) that entered the game holding down the next-to-last spot in the Eastern Conference.

"I think we wanted to do the right thing, we wanted to get on the forecheck and get the legs moving," Danny Briere said. "My feeling is that (it was) mental mistakes; the brain had little lapses here and there and that's why they took advantage of us."

In this game, the Flyers didn't figure on the scoreboard until Luke Schenn and Jakub Voracek scored third-period goals, which came far too late.

It began with Huberdeau throwing a spot-on pass to the top of the slot to an uncovered Mueller, and his wrist shot at 8:15 of the first period struck all net. Just 29 seconds later, the Flyers kicked into a defensive change, which didn't look so good when Tomas Kopecky promptly burst into the attack zone with no defensemen in front of him. He easily completed the breakaway goal for 2-0.

It took just another minute and a half for Luke Schenn to turn the puck over at his blue line, and Huberdeau promptly sprung on another breakaway ... only to be tackled by Kimmo Timonen.

That gave Huberdeau the stage he craves. His penalty shot approach looked like an Olympian free skate routine. It left Bryzgalov to look like an amateur belly flopper.

"I just missed on a poke check a little bit," Bryzgalov said of trying to fend off the penalty shot. "It went between the legs and I can't regroup quick enough. Then it was 3-nothing (instead of) 2-nothing. Big difference. But I knew it, I almost had it, and (oh bleep)."

Oh, Bryz.

"I was so upset," he said.

He was so upset, he tossed his goalie stick toward the bench. But at least the scrambles subsided after that. The Flyers did turn up the pressure at times early, but try as they might, they couldn't crack goalie Scott Clemmensen. And when Huberdeau scored a fourth Panthers goal on a power play at 11:46 of the second, Bryzgalov was pulled, and promptly tossed his stick ahead of him down the tunnel.

"I think we spent lots of emotions and lots of energy on (Wednesday) night's game," Bryzgalov said. "Maybe we were playing today a little, like ... tired and without emotion. Games against Pittsburgh take a lot of energy and emotion to beat them."

Only after his second javelin throw could everyone relax. And that's good.

After all, you do need your nights of rest amid a busy schedule like this.